Browns Offensive Numbers Surprising

The Cleveland Browns had struggles on offense this year. It led to Brian Hoyer being replaced by Johnny Manziel, Kyle Shanahan and Dowell Loggains being replaced from the two most important offensive coaching positions and fans calling for a ton of offense to be added this off-season.

Yet today ESPN’s Pat McManamon took a look at some of the Browns offensive numbers and the results are likely to surprise. Not all of them are eye popping but still surprising:

"The Browns were better than the league average in only two major offensive categories, and both were passing categories: Yards per pass attempt and yards per reception."

So basically when the Browns actually complete a pass they get a ton of yardage. So while the Browns were a run oriented offense, there best ability, comparable to the league, was in throwing deep.

That was a direction reflection of Shanahan’s offense and the team’s ability to suck up defenders with their play action fakes.

Even more surprising is that the Browns put up these kind of numbers with Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron missing a lot of the season. Hoyer was able to put up those kind of numbers throwing to smaller players Andrew Hawkins, Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin. That led to this surprising stat:

"The Browns actually led the league in yards per reception, as the team’s average of 13.4 was well ahead of second-place Green Bay at 12.7."

Shocking to see the Browns ranked at the top of any positive stat on the offensive side of the field. What could have been if Gordon, Cameron and Alex Mack had made it healthy throughout the entire season.

Pat found that the Browns running game, the supposed strength of the team, was not so much:

"The Browns average of 3.62 yards per attempt ranked 28th and was more than a half-yard below the league average.That low per carry figure and the high number of carries (477, sixth in the league) led to an extremely poor ranking in overall yards per play. The Browns were at 5.14, well below the league average of 7.21."

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You know GM Ray Farmer and HC Mike Pettine are aware of these stats and are planning to do something about them in the off-season. As Pat notes it might not be that the passing game was the biggest issue:

"Bottom line: The Browns offense was not good enough, and the main issues were third down conversions, scoring touchdowns and running the ball.The passing game was not a season-long concern."

So while we dream about Amari Cooper, DeVante Parker, Jeremy Maclin, Torrey Smith and others it is possible that the Browns brass are dreaming about offensive linemen and a big tight end. That doesn’t include any conversation about the dreadful run defense.

Are you surprised by the Browns stats brought up by Pat today?

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